If you’ve ever ridden a horse, you’ll be right at home on a camel. Camels are taller, smell worse, walk slower, and are more stubborn. But other than that, it’s the exact same as riding a horse. While I’ve avoided, for the most part, doing the clichéd things on my trips, I have definitely done some. I took cooking classes in Italy, I did the “I’m holding up the leaning tower” pose in Pisa, and I rode in long boats in Cambodia. So it wasn’t too much of a stretch for me to decide to ride a camel in Morocco.
Category: Adventure & Excitement
Songkran in Chiang Mai
Often billed as the world’s largest water fight, the Songkran Festival in Thailand has its roots in centuries-old Buddhist traditions celebrating the new year. But when you allow people to splash water on each other in 95+ degree heat in a popular tourist destination with a low cost of living, you have to expect that tradition will be quickly sidelined by tourists out to have a good time.
Thailand’s Full Moon Party
Take 5,000 people or more, add a half-dozen bars blasting music ranging from hip hop to techno, throw in booze that’s literally sold by the bucket, put it all on a beach in the gulf of Thailand, and what do you have? The full moon party in Koh Pha Ngan.
Muay Thai in Thailand
I knew I was in trouble when the trainer told me to jog for 5 minutes. I don’t jog. I’ve always hated running in whatever form, and I was even relieved over 20 years ago when I injured my knee in the Army, preventing me from running again. But, since I was here, and since I was paying this guy to train me, I might as well jog. So jog, I did. Slowly.
Kung Fu Retreat- Continued
Despite the issues on my first day at the kung fu retreat at the Qi Alchemy Loft, I decided to soldier on. Mainly because I was optimistic about what the rest of the week would bring, despite evidence to the contrary. All in all, I can’t really say the kung fu retreat was a bad experience, nor was it a good one. It was somewhere in between, with both high and low points.
Kung Fu Retreat- Day 1
After my disastrous performance at the meditation retreat (details here and here), I thought that I should give it another shot, but with less ‘meditation’ and more ‘doing stuff that’s not meditation.’ So I dug around on the internet and I found a week-long kung fu retreat in Ft Lauderdale, Florida (which is where all true kung fu is taught, of course).
Running With The Bulls In Pamplona
Ever since Hemingway wrote about the running of the bulls in The Sun Also Rises, tens of thousands of people from around the world flock to Pamplona, Spain for the festival of San Fermin. Starting at noon on July 6th of every year, this festival is, among other things, in honor of Saint Fermin, the patron saint of Pamplona. But I’d bet that 99% of the visitors don’t know that and they don’t care. They’re here for the bulls. More specifically, they’re here to run with the bulls.
La Tomatina
Every year in late August, the small town of Buñol, Spain, home to roughly 9,000 residents, swells to close to 50K people to celebrate the tomato festival, La Tomatina. What started in 1945 as one small kid’s temper tantrum (he fell off of a parade float, got angry, and started throwing tomatoes from a nearby produce stand) has turned into what is considered the biggest annual food fight and the worst ketchup-making process in history.
10 Day Silent Meditation Retreat- My Experience
Hopefully you’ve already read my post about the retreat, here. As I said, I think it’s a very worthwhile program and it provides a valuable set of tools to attendees. So you may be asking why I only lasted 4 days. This post is unlikely to be as entertaining to read as (I hope) some of my other posts are, but here’s the unvarnished truth about my experience at the retreat, at least as I see it now.
10 Day Silent Meditation Retreat
Einstein said that time is relative, and I’m inclined to agree. Sitting in your fourth meeting of the day discussing the new cover sheets for TPS reports, each minute drags on without end. If you’re spending an evening with someone special, hours can pass in the blink of an eye. Einstein also said that, as you move faster and approach the speed of light, time slows down exponentially. Based on that theory, the meditation retreat that I just attended must be moving faster than anything else in the known universe.